Vintage Chara Instrumental In Pair Of Crucial Bruins' Wins
WILMINGTON (CBS) -- That blowout loss the Bruins were supposedly destined to suffer in Dallas last Saturday didn't happen.
Instead the Bruins rallied from 3-1 down to defeat the Stars 7-3.
That embarrassing home defeat at the hands of Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins in front of a national television audience Wednesday that seemed inevitable didn't occur, and instead the Bruins won in a blowout.
After a long losing streak against NHL playoff teams the Bruins have won their past two contests against potential postseason participants. And there were similar factors in both victories. Goaltender Tuukka Rask was outstanding. The Bruins got contributions from their top scorers and their secondary performers. And captain Zdeno Chara made mincemeat of some of the best scorers in the NHL.
Against Dallas, Chara helped limit Tyler Seguin to one shot on net and kept Seguin and linemate Jamie Benn off the score sheet. Considering Chara was paired with Kevan Miller most of the night, there was some hefty lifting going on for the 38-year-old. Then against the Penguins, Crosby was kept at bay with no points and three shots on net by Chara and a combination of Adam McQuaid and Dennis Seidenberg (once coach Claude Julien quickly pulled Miller away from the Crosby matchup).
Certainly the Bruins win as a team and lose as a team. Chara's defensive work might go to waste without the help of Patrice Bergeron's line and Rask's goaltending. But if you're going to blame Chara when things go wrong – and he was on the ice for two goals against in the disappointing loss to Columbus in the game between the Dallas and Pittsburgh tilts – you have to give the 6-foot-9 defenseman his due credit for putting the clamps on a few of the League's elite players in crucial stretch-run games for the Bruins.
These are the types of performances that let you know that even as the Bruins continue to revamp their roster, they can rely on Chara as a No. 1 shutdown defenseman.
Chara feels like he's hitting his stride with the Bruins down to their final 21 games and currently sitting in third place in the Atlantic Division.
"I do. Thank you for noticing. Not many people do," Chara said in a 1-on-1 chat with CBS Boston Thursday after practice at Ristuccia Arena. "But yeah, I mean that's my job and I try to always do my job as best I can. I'm hard on myself to perfection. And it's always my goal to prevent these guys from scoring and time for even getting shots. Any time you do that, you give your team a better chance to win and I take a lot of pride in that."
There's no question Chara was having a difficult time doing his job when the Bruins' six-game road trip, which ended with the Dallas win, began. Boston started the trip 3-2-0 but during one stretch Chara was on the ice for eight straight goals against (mostly in the 6-5 loss at Detroit). He was also on for goals in the Bruins' favor and made many important plays that don't show up on the stats sheet. Although he would never criticize his teammates, obviously there was a team-wide struggle to make the right plays on breakouts and handle assignments in coverage without the puck during the rough parts of the trip. Not to mention he's had an unending rotation of defense partners of various ability levels. With the Bruins playing catchup in several games, Chara often had to press the issue a little bit and he got into some jams. Most of the time, those mistakes are the ones that stand out in people's minds regardless of the positive plays he's made and the outcome of the games.
"Not just taking a risk but you have to try and make plays," Chara said. "That's my job. I can't be just sitting back and waiting for something to happen just out of nothing. And at the same time, you don't want to be doing something just [to not] do nothing. At times, you've got to try and make plays because when you're behind, especially when you're behind, you've got to try to make a play to obviously try to score, make it closer. That's not from trying to do something recklessly or taking unnecessary risk."
Three days before the NHL trade deadline, Chara didn't want to make predictions about what the team would look like at 3:01 p.m. Monday. He was just hopeful the team, in its current state or with some changes, would continue to improve. He's never even come close to complaining about the Bruins going through their current transition period while he's down to the last couple seasons of his current contract. He's playing major minutes (22nd in the League at 24:08 per game) against major competition and many nights he's getting the better of those matchups. He's also tutoring the young guys and providing off-ice guidance when needed.
As far trade rumors with his name in them, Chara admitted he hears them. Nonetheless, they're as bothersome to him as a Brian Gionta love tap. He's looking forward to being part of the Bruins' attempt to return to contender status.
"I don't why [I'm in trade rumors] though. I don't know why people just started making rumors," he said. "I heard something the other day that someday said that I could be traded, but it's always something that's going to be written and somebody's going to make some statements, whatever. And people are probably going to jump on it and start talking about it. But as a player, obviously it can't affect you. What can you do if somebody writes something? But I'm planning to stay here and play here."
Chara's plan to stick around is great news for the Bruins who will need every ounce of his energy to make the big plays at both ends during their drive to return to the postseason.
Matt Kalman covers the Bruins for CBSBoston.com and also contributes to NHL.com and several other media outlets. Follow him on Twitter@TheBruinsBlog.